The Materials Science Laboratory (MSL) onboard the International Space Station is designed for the
research on solidification processes under microgravity conditions. It is equipped with two exchangeable
furnace inserts of Bridgman-type allowing temperatures of up to 1400 ◦C. MSL is operated under ESA
contract by the Microgravity User Support Center (MUSC) at DLR in Cologne in collaboration with
Marshal Space Flight Center at Huntsville which is responsible for the Materials Science Research Rack
(MSRR) which hosts MSL and provides services. MSL was launched in 2009 and installed in the US Destiny laboratory module. Since then a number of experiments by different project teams have been performed and research is still ongoing. Since 2018, a new type of cartridges developed by NASA allows investigation of sintering processes within MSL. The paper will give a survey on MSL operations over the last decade and provide an outlook for future MSL planning
